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Want to live young for a lifetime?

Today, we are exploring longevity — not just as a science, but as a way of life — with Dr. Jeffrey Gladden, a former cardiologist turned longevity expert.

After walking away from traditional medicine, Dr. Gladden went on a personal quest to optimize his health — physically, mentally, and spiritually. In this conversation, we explore why longevity is about so much more than supplements or lab results — it’s about mindset, identity, and learning how to play the game of life differently.

Topics We Explore:

• Shifting to longevity medicine for true health optimization.
• Longevity as a whole-life approach — body, mind, and spirit.
• Identity, ego, and letting go of who you think you are
• Using mindset and quantum thinking to create your reality.
• Healing trauma and living authentically with joy and purpose.

Connect with Dr. Jeffrey Gladden: https://gladdenlongevity.com/

Learn More about The Viking Academy: https://www.vikingacademy.com

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Episode Transcript: 

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Viking Academy podcast. This episode got me so fired up. I have Dr. Jeffrey Gladen from Gladen Longevity on the podcast this week and holy um is all I can say.

I thought we were going to go deep into the body. It's one of, you know, the mind, the body, and spirit are the three areas that we explore on the Viking Academy. And I thought we were going to go straight down the body uh on the longevity route and we ended up hitting on the mind.

We hit on the body and most importantly we hit upon the spirit. This guy is an incredible powerhouse. He's uh got a birthday coming up. He's going to be 71. But he has uh biological measurements in his body.

The different parts inside his body measure like some in his 30s, some in his 40s. I I mean the guy is an absolute machine and he shares with us on this podcast how he came about uh finding his new passion.

He was a cardiologist or still is a cardiologist but then he had uh some health issues and it changed the trajectory of his life and now he started up Gladen Longevity. Um we share and talk about like I said the mind, the body and the spirit.

He shares this incredible mindset hack. I'm going to call it a hack. I don't like the word normally, but I'm going to share it this way. That if you keep this one thing in your head, just one thing in your head, it will automatically reverse your aging process.

Just this one mind hack. And I'm just going to tease you with that one. This is an incredible conversation. I can't wait to talk to him again because I had a bunch of aha moments inside this podcast episode that um blew my mind.

Really seriously did. So there you go. Dr. Jeffrey Gladen, are you ready? Let's go explore. Dr. Gladen, welcome to the podcast. Hey, good to be here, Art. Hey.

Um, you know, I was I've been really looking forward to having this conversation with you. um when I was reading up on um your background and your bio for the listener though um could you give a little quick little background into what got you into longevity um kind of a quick synopsis there and then I want to dive into some specific details because you've got a you got an a very uh amazing track record here that I'm I want to dive into.

Okay. Yeah. I mean I I kind of got dragged into it quite honestly. you know, I was um I was very happy in my career as an interventional cardiologist, which I, you know, did for 25 years and I had my own heart group.

I had 10 offices and 12 docs and we were flying around a little planes starting Kath labs and I co-founded a heart hospital and was uh involved with several medical device companies and all this kind of stuff.

And then in my 50s um all of a sudden I just I just lost everything. Felt like I mean my energy was gone. and I was putting on weight. I I would get stressed and get like incredibly depressed, like not the kind of depression where you could like talk yourself out of it or go for a run.

It was just like, man, I really want out of here kind of thing. And then I was also developing brain fog, right? And so my father ended up dying with dementia. So all this is incredibly concerning to me, right?

And so I basically go in and I and I get tested by one of my colleagues and and what I'm told uh when the test results come back is, hey, um everything looks normal for your age.

You're just getting older. Why don't you take an anti-depressant? That was probably I don't know. I've had I've had a number of very existential moments in my life, but that was certainly one of them, right?

Probably in the top five. It was like, oh my gosh, really? this whole trajectory is just downhill from here. That's really what you're saying. It's just this I've hit the zenith. It's all going to be downhill from now.

And did you want to jump over the desk and throttle them at the time? Like did you just kind of have one of these what happened inside you when that happened? Uh it was it was um you know it was disbelief like is this really happening?

Is is this what's really going to happen? Is this really how this plays out? And then there was also disbelief in terms of I can't believe that's all they have to offer me, right?

I can't believe my own my own culture, right? My own culture of traditional sick care medicine. That's all they have to offer me. And so I I refuse to accept it. Quite honestly, I was like, no.

You know, part of the thing for me is that um even though I'm a physician, I've been a physician for a long time, um an MD and all of that, I've never identified as that.

Uh it's always something I did over here, but it's not my identity. And so, it was pretty easy for me to say, well, okay, I guess this isn't working out. Let me let me go down a different path here and see if I can figure this out.

So, I kind of had been seeing some ads for, you know, longevity medicine and things like that. Jeffrey Life was on the cover of different magazines and stuff like that talking about 70-year-old doctor that, you know, felt like he was better than his 50s.

And I thought, well, maybe there's something here. I'm going to go check it out. So, anyway, I I did a lot of course work. I got certifications, a lot of CME, a lot of reading.

And it took me two and a half years, but I actually figured everything out for myself. Um, and I had something called subclinical hypothyroidism, which means that uh I wasn't getting enough thyroid activity into my cells, even though my blood counts look normal, quote unquote normal.

And then genetically, I figured out that I don't convert inactive thyroid to active thyroid in my brain very efficiently. So, I have uh I'm homozygous for a DIO2 gene that basically decreases my capacity to convert make that conversion by 60% or more.

And so when I got on um a combination of active T3 and inactive T4, oh my gosh, it was like the lights came back on. Like I had energy to jump out of bed again in the morning.

It was like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." And then, you know, I put on weight and was losing strength and was not able to keep up with my kids and some testosterone and um DHEA and things like that.

And this was, you know, quite a while ago now. Um, and um, that was relatively novel at the time. Um, but you know, all of a sudden I lost 20 pounds of fat, put on 10 pounds of muscle, and I could do anything I wanted to.

And then the anxiety and the brain fog and the depression um, I sorted out. My mother had always suffered with kind of intermittent depression and um, and my dad had dementia. So, I don't have Alzheimer's genes, but my genetics basically showed me that I was predisposed to dementia through some other pathways and that I also was 7:007 minutespredisposed to depression.

And it was like, oh, well, that's a light. Um, let me let me go down that path. And so, I got myself on the right combination of supplements uh and things to actually help me make neurotransmitters properly.

And then it was like, wow, I I haven't felt this good in like forever. And so, I was like, okay, I'm I'm done. I mean, I I can't do this anymore. I can't have these conversations with clients about, you know, cholesterol and blood pressure when I know that there's a world of medicine over here that can change people's lives.

And so, I, you know, I stepped away from from cardiology. I just I just uh what I call base jumped out of it, right? Because I didn't know I was going to land. It's like, you know, I hope we I hope we get this plane built before we hit or this parachute opens.

But, uh, you know, you kind of you kind of follow your heart at that point in time, right? And it's it takes courage. I'd wake up in a cold sweat at night, you know, wondering what I'd just done, but but I would never go back ever.

And so, yeah, I I kind of got kind of dragged into it, you know, uh, by personal experience. Did Did you ever have the depression prior to your 50s? And it So, you did have it.

So, it was kind of like it became chronic, I guess. You just got used to it after a while. And when did what what was the thing that actually triggered you to kind of think I should do something about this?

Well, you know what's interesting is I probably was intermittently depressed through college and even medical school and my training. It wasn't until I finished all my training. Um well actually even during my cardiology training at one point I went through a divorce and I was incredibly depressed.

Um like you know really wanting out of here kind of depressed. miraculously I'm still here quite honestly you know really divine intervention is the reason I'm here um but the point is that when I when I finished my cardiology fellowship and started working and you know wasn't under all the pressure of training right which is you know it's very rigorous what what physicians go through in that training process um and I could sort of start to lead lead my life you know and and date some people and go out and do things and you know buy a car and do stuff that you normal people do, right?

Um, I started to feel pretty good and then it dawned on me, you know, I think I've been depressed for about the last decade on some some level, right? And so I think I dealt with it chronically uh intermittently.

Um, so yeah, there you know, you you man, I could unpack so many different angles to go down here. Um, you you said something that really jumped out at me though.

You said you followed your heart and so you got out of your traditional role that you were doing before and you went I need to go and create which you now is glad and longevity right which is what this is what you're doing now but you said you had to follow your heart and I'm not I've I've had so many conversations with um professionals in the shall we quote unquote harder or more three-dimensional spaces of accounting lawyer engineer doctor and they're going I need to break out of this there's something I need to follow and you followed this this heart dri this heart-c centered approach like you said I really need to go do this it's like almost a drive that did you felt like it was a drive that came from within you as well yeah it it was both a drive and a pull yeah a drive and a pull and it it was like you couldn't really see the end result but you knew you needed to do it and God was telling you to go for this and your spirit was pushing you right that's right that's right I didn't know how it was going to work out I didn't know how to make a living doing it I didn't know anything about it, but I just knew that I was done with cardiology.

I just knew I was done with it. Um, it's it's it's there's some profound times in your life where you just know things, right? And this was one of those profound times. It's like, no, I'm simply done with this.

I really want to devote my life to helping humanity in a different way. I really want to help them with optimization of health and life and, you know, spirituality and the whole thing really. 11:0011 minutesIt's it's more than just health.

It's a much bigger much bigger equation. Yeah. Exactly. And that's so that's similar to my experience as well because I'm a CPA by trade.

I was in the CPA and then over time I sold my accounting practice, got out, started coaching and then it's like the Viking Academy came to me which is let's let's call it self-improvement wrapped in a Viking blanket, right?

Like let's be like Vikings and go explore our lives. The mind, the body, and spirit. So those are those three things above here is the mind, the body, and the spirit. Cuz it's we're not just one dimension.

We're we're multiple dimensions. But I've kind of simplified it down into those three pieces. And I'm I'm really glad that you mentioned that that you were you felt spiritually driven to go like there was a there was a pull that was pulling you calling you to do this.

Um to do something outside of the shall we call it the traditional realm. Um so did you your colleagues how did they react to you going off and and leaving and and going the tr blazing the trail that you did?

Well, you know, I was I was leading my my heart group, right? I had founded it and built it and everything else. I had co-founded this heart hospital with, you know, um, at the time 75 other doctors, which was now up to maybe 120 doctors and, you know, all this kind of thing.

And I I tried to explain myself to people and then I realized that nobody's actually really going to understand it. Um, because understand it. Yeah, you get it, right? But most of most people in their professional roles and I think this is really important for people in general uh to to think about is how do you identify, right?

What what's your identity? Right? And I think it's really easy for us to get identified with a job that we do or a position that we hold or even a podcast that you run or whatever it is, right?

It's really easy to get identified with that and yet we're all so much bigger than anything that we happen to be doing at this time, right? So for me, I realized, oh, okay, this is a transition.

I always knew that interventional cardiology was an athletic endeavor, right? I mean, you're wearing lead, you're in a cath lab, you're doing very, you know, delicate things, you know, in people's bodies. And and I always knew that, you know, you wouldn't be doing that when you're 80 years old, right?

So I knew I knew there was a shelf life to it. But what what surprised me was that I thought I would choose to leave it on my own terms. And and yet the decision was handed to me.

It's like, "No, this is time time for you to go." Uh, and it was it was a it was I was being repelled from it because I could no longer really bear to do it.

And I was being attracted to, "Oh my gosh, there's a world of opportunity." You talk about exploration. Yeah. I have I have a a plaque in my closet that I look at every day that says, uh, and then I realized adventure was the way to learn.

Yeah. Right. Adventure is the way to learn. And so it's like, okay, I'm off on the next adventure. And it's like, let's see what we can figure out. Yeah, 14:0014 minutesI love that.

So you and I had made a mention of the or I write notes feverishly when I do these podcasts and I had written down you said I didn't identify that with the the role of uh the cardiologist.

What what do you identify yourself as? Like what is what is the identity of Jeffrey Gladen? Wow. Uh, how long is this podcast? Dude, we can do multiple. This is the best part. Is this This is the See, this is the freedom we get for not being in the traditional world, right?

We can just do whatever we want here. Whatever we want here. Well, I'll tell you what it is. I've been on a spiritual path my entire life, quite honestly, since the age of three.

Um, I remember walking down the street at 3, um, coming back from a pond that I used to play at and catching polywogs and frogs when I was 3 years old, walking back to the house and I would I grew up in a traditional, let's call it a Protestant Christian family kind of scenario.

Um, and I remember debating the existence of God and sometime day thinking that I want to be wise. I would like to be wise. And so I've just held a curiosity about all things spiritual actually from a very very young age.

And I I grew up in a very religious background. I went to Christian schools. I went to seminary for a couple of quarters. I went to Wheaten College. Um and yet I got to a point where I um stepped away from all the dogma.

Right? I think a lot of us get to a point where it's like, okay, we see the dogma. We see the binary thinking, right? We're right, you're wrong. You know, this whole thing and and none of that made sense to me.

Uh the world couldn't be binary. You know, spirituality is not binary. My experience of spirituality is not binary, right? It's in incredibly inclusive. It's oh my gosh, when you touch consciousness and pure love, it's like, wow, are you kidding me?

So, you have those experiences. um all of a sudden you really start to identify as being a spiritual creature having a human experience and I think it's really important to for me anyway uh to identify as that and not identify as you know any of my role so to speak.

So yeah um anybody watching the video if they didn't see me there my head's bouncing around like a bobblehead doll. I'm just like, "Yep, yep, yep." I I um the the my quest has been Let me let me take it a step further.

I'm sorry to interrupt you. And that is this that I had a realization just recently that I was sharing with uh with Mukti, my partner. Um she and I were chatting and I was telling her that really what I've come to understand about planet Earth is that it's a giant escape room.

It's a giant escape room. The question is, can you actually navigate through all the twists and turns of all the things you're indoctrinated with, all the things that you're told are true and not true and blah blah blah and all these different things.

Can you actually find your way back to connection with pure consciousness and really your true identity, that coming home sort of experience? I think it's a I think it's a giant escape room, quite honestly.

So, I love that analogy. That's fantastic. I I've uh I I had a book that I was going to write. I probably still write it. It's um uh life is a sandbox. Go play.

So, it's really we're just making these we're making these temporary sand castles and then when little Billy runs by and crashes my sand castle, I throw a temper tantrum and freak out. But my my father or my mother's sitting there watching me and my parents are watching me and they're like, "Oh, it's okay.

You know, they're just temporary sand castles you built. Like, just go play, kid. Just go have fun." Right. Yeah. That's it. And Yeah. And so um the uh my uh so my my spiritual quest has not been as long as yours.

I was kind of I call it unconscious for a long period of time. The last 17 years is when I've been actively really now engaged in in in reading all the different spiritual quests.

So the Bagavad Gita, the Quran, like I've read all of them. They all point to the same they're all he said they all point to the same thing, you know. That's right. They all point to the same thing.

And that and and for me the um shall we call it the Viking Academy ethos is more like be an explorer of your own life. Go discover who you are and why you're here.

Like what you're here to experience and that's the adventure. Like that's the adventure is going. And and so I love how you've you've embraced the well that was part of the ride that I went on before being a cardiologist, but now here's this new thing.

And it's this it's the concept of seeing the shall we call it the burning bush or seeing the thing that catches your attention and and that draws you to adventure. You've been drawn to go and create this longevity chapter of your life to share with everyone but it it's been drawn to you.

How do you and and for all the listeners out there is you know one of the things was like is it predestined or do we have self-will? That's the the everybody always has this big debate.

It has to be one or the other providing for you right now if you want. Yeah, it's free will. Yeah, it's free will at the quantum level. It is free will, right? It's only in mechanistic physics that we think that we're somehow uh predestined, right?

We I think when we understand the nature of the quantum universe, right, and it's really a field of all possibilities and our input into it has as much to say about what it manifests as not, right?

So, I think I think that, you know, I've heard some interesting podcasts on people that are just so adamant that there is no free will and because there's a chemical doing this and a chemical doing that and therefore this is making this happen.

It's such a reductionist view. However, you know, it's really like a Newtonian look at physics, if you will, right? It's all billyard balls and gravity and, you know, things swirling around each other. When in actual fact, we now understand that really the entire universe is quantum waves, right?

It's quantum energy. And matter, which we think is, you know, right here. Yeah. Actually pops into and out of existence all the time, right? The zero point energy field that's there, right? And so, oh my gosh, when you understand that and you understand the power of a thought, the power of an intention, right?

The power of an emotion um to actually shape reality, it's like, "Oh, okay. I I I you know, that really works." And tell you, that's so much more fun than me feeling like I'm a billiard ball that's just being cascaded down a river.

You know, if that's true, then, you know, so be it. But I don't I don't believe it. I don't feel it's never been my experience. So, yeah. Yeah.

And that's but there there's therein in lies I think part of the escape room is the fact that sometimes it looks like it's all predestined and then other times it looks like you have free will but then all of a sudden your free will doesn't manifest what you want and it looks predestined and you're like what the hell's going on here?

So your your your analogy of the escape room is actually really cool because it's like it's playing a trick on us. It's like, well, this works almost all the time, but it doesn't. And then it makes you question it.

Now you're thinking, okay, maybe it's maybe it is destiny, right? But there is something that called you to that calling.

Like that's the thing that I've I've started to really find with the people that I've been interviewing and my experience is like when I find the thing that interests me and not in a egoic way like there's a different resonance with an egoic I want to go do this for me as opposed to this is attracting me to that there's something about this that's making me want to go do this right makes me feel like the gods are at play going hey Eric 22:0022 minuteshere's the little fun things that you really want to play with so go play with them, right?

It's like they're dropping it in your lap to so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a uh it's kind of a strong pull as opposed to your curiosity, right?

I mean, a curiosity, you could be curious about many things, but to feel this pull where you're actually going to change your life and change what you do and change everything about it, that's that's a strong, you know, sort of spiritual pull, right?

Yeah. And I find it has um it has a perpetuating cycle to it. So, when I put my energy into it, it feeds me more energy back. And that my energy um shall we call it my divining rod is the energy level for me.

Like when I get into something that I know is is right, it's feeding me more energy as I feed into it and it just keeps rolling itself. So it starts to have this life of its own almost because I don't have to keep pushing it.

When I'm really pushing hard and I look back on things that were really hard and I kept pushing and pushing and pushing, I'm like, "Oh, well maybe those are almost like like the divining rods showing you where the water is." Right.

That's right. Yeah, you can try to override them, but if they want to go right and you're trying to push them go left, you still try to push them to go left, right? But it's like, yeah.

Yeah. I've had some really interesting insights also that kind of factor into this on um the meaning of life actually, which came to me in a a profoundly deep meditation um which may have had some pharmarmacology involved with it.

So the and I was also listening to deep theta binaural beats right and in that state I was able to come directly in contact with consciousness and just feel the absolute pure love that's there.

I mean when you get in touch with conscious it is pure pure love and there's a knowing and being known and a loving and being loved right that's just profound and it became my definition of a great relationship and as I was in this state I was thinking about well what is what does love love to do right what does love love love to do well love loves to create love to create right and this we have this unfolding infinite number of universes here right this multiverse whatever is going on and Then what's the feedback loop?

Wh why love creating? What's the feedback loop to love? Well, it dawned on me. I think it's joy. Yeah. Joy. So, it's love creating joy, right? And I really feel like that has become the purpose of my life.

From a loving place to create joy, right? So I can pretty much look at anything that I'm involved with and it's from a loving place creating joy and it becomes such a nice sort of template to lay on top of anything, right?

And if I'm not creating joy or if I'm efforting or whatever, then you know it gives me some pause. But here's the other thing about it. I'm a musician. I see your guitar player in the back.

We both play the guitar. So we'll have to get together one of these days. But the point is that in music, music is all about tension and release, right? You build tension, you release resolves into the chord that you know the resolution of it.

And so in any creative process, even in love creating joy, there is tension and release in that creative process. And so what you're creating can feel difficult at times. It can feel challenging. It can feel whatever.

But as you feel your way and think your way and move your way through it, um you get to a point where you start to feel the release come through that. Oh yeah, this is how those four things work together and this is how these six things are going to complement that, right?

And so there's if you embrace this concept that really we're here from a loving place to create joy and that in the creative process there will be tension and release. All of a sudden it's like oh what a fun what a fun play what a fun sandbox, right?

What a fun sandbox. Exactly. And then the the the downs and the dark the dark spaces and the tension is put there to give you the experience of release. You can't experience release unless you have that tension first.

And it's I love how you brought in with the music too cuz Yeah. I I I do you see the guitar in the background. I also play drums and lead singing a heavy metal band.

We just had a show on the weekend actually and it's just you want to talk about released beat the crap out I beat the drum skins like they owe me money like daddy beat those skins right but it's it's it's the looking back on all the dark parts of my life.

I've I've separated I've got a separation under my belt as well or shall we call it the same t-shirt.

I also went to uh I went to rehab and I've been 17 years sober now and so that's been my that's was my impetus to go and speak seek a spiritual experience and similar to you after my step four and five I had that connection with consciousness which was everything you just said and more it's like you almost can't articulate no what it is right because it's so much more than that but words are about as archaic as we can kind of cobble together.

So everything you said I totally related to and more because I could sense the the feeling underneath it. But looking back and seeing all those dark spots as necessary for me to be who I am today.

So trying to consciously remember today the stuff that I'm going through that's difficult and painful and tension is going this is just leading up to the release that is the beautiful sound of my life which is the music.

And I so I love how you pull that together. Yeah. Yeah. I I concur with what you're saying. I think there's another thing for the listeners to understand which is that um you know all of us have experienced trauma.

I don't know of anybody I've ever talked to that has not experienced trauma of some sort either physical or emotional or combination of the two or whatever. Um, and this organism, this nervous system is wired in a way to live in reaction to that trauma, right?

And so we we end up going through life living in reaction to the traumas that we've experienced and it puts us on tilt. It puts us on tilt and you can tell when somebody walks into the room and they're on tilt, right?

You you feel they're on tilt, right? We we talk about five senses. There's really six and there's probably more, but certainly the six sense is the fact that we read each other's energy, right?

We read the energies all the time. Yeah. So with that, you can tell when somebody's on tilt even though I can't tell when I'm on tilt, right? Because I've so normalized it that it's just no, this is reality.

I believe what my mind is telling me is actually true, right? This is another fallacy, but it's so we're on tilt. We're living in reaction on tilt. And I think one of the escape room challenges is for us to actually go back and understand those traumas to actually dissect them and tease them apart.

Understand who did what, what did I do, what did they do, what was said, who did this, who was that, what am I responsible for, what were they responsible for.

When you get all that sort of sorted out and you can see this was just another human being actually trying to make themselves feel safe on some level, then you can actually start to forgive everybody involved, right?

And once you forgive everybody involved, now you can heal the trauma. And then to your point where you actually transcend it, you now become grateful for everything that happened to you because now it's made you wiser, more empathetic, greater greater perspective, right?

Uh more wisdom. And so I think one of the major tasks in this escape room is to become our unencumbered selves where we're no longer encumbered by the things that we experience, right? The shame, the guilt, any of that sort of stuff.

And when you when you become unencumbered from that and you have profound sense of unconditional love for yourself, just like that love that you both by have contacted and now it's like, oh, let me give that to myself too. let me just let that flow into me too, right?

And you give yourself love and then you realize that nothing external to you can ever make you feel safe because I think all stress, worry, fear, even anger and greed, right, come from not feeling safe, right?

And so you could ask yourself the question, when I'm angry, what am I angry about? Well, on some levels, probably because we don't feel safe. So then, how do I give myself unconditional love?

That's an inside job. How do I give myself safety? Which is a psychosspiritual question, right? Not a not a material one. It's a psychospiritual question.

Anyway, when you get that right and now you're unencumbered and liberated from the past, now you're actually free to be your unencumbered self where you don't have to identify with an identity to feel complete and you can actually step away from all that.

Now you're just free to actually move through space from a different perspective. It's such a cool such a cool experience. So in longevity, just to bring it back to that, my concept of longevity is when we're 100 years old and want to have a 30-year-old body and a 300/3,000y old mind, right?

I think this is longevity, right? Is really developing the whole nervous system and the whole psychospiritual side as well as the health. That is that is awesome. That is beautiful. That's everything that I've thought and you encompassed it.

You explained it so beautifully. It's and the freedom you feel the moments of freedom that I feel when I'm in that space because I don't I don't oscillate there all the time. I can be honest like I go in and out.

I I forget and then I go back into the and I get angry and hurt and upset. I'm like what what's going on? I'm like oh right you know the Buddha said life is suffering but it was attachment to things attachment to that is suffering right it's in my head it's all in my head because that's why I love echartol.

It goes the power of now. It's like, well, what's wrong right now? That's right. Nothing. Nothing. There's never anything wrong in the now and it's always now, right? That's right.

But having that freedom and just listening to you have that realization of the freedom to love unconditionally because you know that you're a spiritual being having a having a human experience and just flowing in the energy of it.

It becomes fun. It's like a you life's a sandbox. Go play. Go play. Go play. Have Have fun. Create, right? Love creating joy. It's like, oh my god, have fun. I like that.

It I I got to think about that a little bit more because I still like I have three companies right now and I've got a fourth one that I just started up. So, and I get frustrated in the traditional sense.

Oh, this is not working. That's not working. 33:0033 minutesTraditional. I'm working with my spiritual guide and she's like, that's the old way of doing things, Eric. that you you the reason why it's hard and stiff and hard is because you're doing it the old way.

We need to shift to the new way, which is more of a heart-c centered and allowing and just the joy. I think that's the thing. Is this bringing me and others joy? And if it isn't, there's my litmus test.

There's my filter. That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah. If it's not bringing you and others joy, then you know, why are you doing it? Right. Yeah. So you here one of the things I do want to get back into longevity.

This is I love this conversation by the way. Speaking of joy, I'm filled with it right now and thank you so much.

This is fantastic. like, you know, I was looking at um you know, you have the you know, you've got your chronological age and then you've got your your call it the biological ages are like like what in your 30s and 40s some of the markers that what can you explain that to the listeners what I'm talking about chronological versus biological age and and how how did you manage to reverse your aging shall we say?

Sure. Well, I think there's a couple things involved there. One is of course everybody has a birth date, right? So, we all have a chronological age, you know. I was born in 1954 in February, so I have another birthday this year.

Oh, happy birthday. You're going to have a birthday in a couple weeks, sir. Two weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, and yet, um, you know, when I was practicing cardiology, it dawned on me that, um, I would meet people that were 30 that were going on 60 and people that were 60 that were going on 30, right?

And it really had to do with their mindset and their level of activity and their curiosity and what they would engage in and what they found fun and their ability to enjoy life if you will.

Um, and so that was kind of a really interesting thing. And then I started to realize when I was going through my own health challenges that well I can measure my age many different ways biologically.

I have a telomeic age. I have a brain age. I have a heart age. I have a V2 max age. I have a blood vessel age. I have a kidney age. I have you know bone age. have many many different ages, right?

So, we have many many different sort of biological ages which make up the biological think of it as the biological components like in your car, you know, your brakes have an age, your tires have an age, your seat has an age, your steering wheel has an age, right?

It's the same same an analogy and yet the car might have been built in 19 whenever it was or 200 whatever it was.

So in the same sense um we have biological ages and what's really important is to understand that you are a mosaic of many ages just like a car has many ages right and so in some sense we're only as young as our oldest age so um right so we're only as young as our oldest biological age um and so I have many ages biological ages that are decades younger than my chronological age and yet my kidneys were damaged when I was 5 years old.

I had a strep throat and antibodies attacked my kidneys and so they've always been, you know, more of a an issue for me. So that's kind of my oldest, if you will, biological age.

And so that's the area where I focus attention. But if you don't know where you stand in your biological ages, you're really in a handicap to optimize your biological longevity. So I think that's that's a really key piece.

I will add to that also that there's another age that I think is equally important and that is the age that you choose to be. So for example, I'm 27, right? I don't know how old you are exactly, Eric, but I'm 27.

You're talking to a 27 year old. Yeah. Well, the way I look at it and and I'll I'll kind of mirror it back to uh the recovery movement. They said the the day you started drinking alcohol, it stunted your grow like your your mental growth.

So basically I'm like probably around, you know, 33 years old. Like in my head I'm about 33. That's it. That's who I am. Yeah. Yeah. But what I do is I reference and and I appreciate you're saying that.

What I'm referencing here is the fact that I wake up 27 every day. And if I don't feel 27, I don't say, you know what, but you're so much better than most people your age.

You're so good for your age. You can do all the stuff you look at all the things you can do that other people your age can't do. I never say that. I never say that.

That's a total acquiescence to the aging process. I say, "No, yeah, Dan, I'm 27. What do I need to do to get back to 27?" And that mindset drives as much progress as knowing that your telomeir ages are, you know, either a decade older or younger or, you know, whatever biological age you're you're measuring.

So, I tend to really, if you're listening to this, I would have you choose an age that you want to be for the rest of your life. So, I'm 27 now. The next decade birthday, I'll be 28.

After that, 29. When I'm 100, I'll be 30. Right? So, that's kind of a little bit of the logic behind it. But, um, but I can't tell you how incredibly powerful that is because there will there will be times that you go through your life when something gets you down. you know, it's a either an orthopedic injury or something happens or whatever.

You're going through a a breakup or something's happened and all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, man. I think I don't I don't still don't think I'm going to get back there." But then you say, "No, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm going to get back there." And the beauty of living in the world we do today is the technology is there to actually help us get back there. So, that's a massive driver for me on how I stay young is by claiming that youthful age.

So would you say the mindset is the first most important thing? 100%. Yeah. You're not going to do anything you don't have a mindset to do. Right. So you know I I I think it I I always liken it back down to in all my coaching 39:0039 minutesbusinesses.

So I've got multiple coaching businesses and financial companies and that when I have a conversations about getting anything done, it's like it's kind of like the um the creation story. First there was the thought, then there was the word, then there was the action.

It's like you have to think it first, then you know it has to come thought, then you speak it, then you act it. So that's like nothing can happen until you think it first.

So I always think mindset is always the number one thing to That's right. to focus on. I love the age though. You got me rolling in my head now. I'm wondering if 33 is the right number for me, but it seems to resonate.

So I'm think I think I'm good there. Yeah. Good. No, resonate with I'm your elder then and we're gonna go to call that. You are. Yeah. That's Yeah.

Can you tell me tell tell me a little bit more about uh Gladen longevity like what do you do in the business and and you know we've talked around the changes that happened to you the the the necessity that kind of forced you into it then you realized it's actually part of your journey and 40:0040 minutesthen what does it actually do though for people?

So, the way it's structured, um, you know, we're we're a medical practice, uh, licensed medical practice in Texas, outside of Dallas, um, between DFW airport and Dallas. Um, and the way we're structured is that we want to work with people that are interested to have a 30-year-old body and a 300-y old mind, 3,000y old mind, right?

And the way that we we do that is we actually look at each individual through five different circles, right? Five different areas if you will. And so the first one is the life energy circle, right?

And this is the whole psychosspiritual space, right? Um and the initial piece of that is is do you have a growth mindset? Right? And the easy way to decide if you have a growth mindset is are you married to your questions or are you married to your answers?

Right? If you're married to your answers, you're already you're already in the backwash because all answers have a shelf life. Answers are what are eternal. I mean, questions are what are eternal, right? If you have answers, they're in the backwash.

So, so you really want to identify what questions are driving you, right? What questions am I asking? Right? So, for us, it's how do we make 100 to 230? How do we have a 300, 3,000 year old mind?

How do we live well beyond 120? How do we live young for a lifetime? Right? These questions. So we have literally thousands of answers in our practice and we're only guided by those questions.

So I think if you're running any kind of business or even running your own life for that matter, I think it's really or or doing something with your partner, what are the questions that are driving us, right?

What are the questions that we want to be married to? Um I think that's really what pulls us forward, right? So we start with a life energy circle. There's another piece of that too on the growth mindset which is are you a binary thinker or a quantum thinker, right?

So in binary thinking 42:0042 minutesthere's essentially this concept of somebody's right and somebody's wrong. You look at every conflict on the planet, somebody's right and somebody's wrong, right? And yet for humanity not to blow itself up, you know, we've got a convergence of some really interesting technologies going on here between nuclear weapons and and AI that can be weaponized, right?

So you look at if humans are not going to blow themselves up, and maybe we will. I don't know if we're smart enough to escape as a as a species. But um but if we are, we're going to need to transcend binary thinking.

We're going to need to step into what I would call quantum thinking. And in quantum thinking, like a quantum computer, you've got a plus one, a minus one, and a zero right in the middle.

And then you have a sphere of all possibilities.

So as a quantum thinker it gives you the freedom to look at a situation and say okay how do we find a solution that represents love creating joy for people involved with this particular scenario and how do we go through the whole planet and make that work right for everybody and you have to have everybody's got to participate if somebody gets falls into a binary position right they kind of devolve down into that binary position it becomes a little sticky right but if we can elevate ourselves to start to think in a quantum way uh in our relationships, in relationship to ourselves, our businesses, our politics, you know, all of this stuff.

I think I think this is how we can actually really change the planet. So, that's another piece of a growth mindset that I that I think is cool. And then we go through mental health and relationships and all kinds of stuff.

So, go ahead. Sorry, I just wanted to mention on that because you talked about the binary thinking. It's like the all or nothing thinking. That's very much the shall we call it alcoholic thinking.

It's all or nothing. You're either worse than everybody or greater than everybody. It's that that's that internal shall we call it I'm actively consciously rewiring my thinking from that because I know I can fall into that because of the alcoholism.

Um but this this I've often thought it over and over again. It's like humanity needs a oftware upgrade. It's like we need a consciousness upgrade. We need something for us to move on to the next phase or to even like as you pointed out survive.

We need an actual upgrade to our software system. It's like, you know, it's time for the aliens to come down and give us the plug up and just give us, you know, give us the download to, you know, upgrade the system because we can't we can't it just it's very clear to me that that's the case.

And it's um do you remember a spiritual teacher Krishna Merti? Have you read any of his? He saw that he the urgency of change. He saw this a long long time ago. So, you know, we really need this this this change.

He also had another phrase that I'm sure you would love. A mind that is constantly learning can never be hurt. Well, that's I think that's true because then there's really no such thing as failure, right?

Yeah. There's only learning. There's there is no such thing as failure. There's only experience and learning and growing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, sorry, we went so the five circles. So, we did the life energy circle was the first circle.

So, that's the first one. The second one is uh the longevity circle. Now I was trained in traditional medicine. So what I call sickare medicine, symptom driven medicine, right? So if you have a symptom, you came to see me.

Then when I was able to heal myself, um I took a functional medicine, integrative medicine, you know, age management medicine approach, which is looking at the root cause of what was going on. Okay.

Well, you're depressed because your genetics are this way and this way and your, you know, your thyroid's this and, you know, blah blah blah. So, you're kind of getting to the root cause, right?

And that's wonderful and and we need that kind of medicine and I practice it every day. And yet sitting below that is another level of medicine, which is longevity medicine, which is actually looking at the actual biological drivers of aging in our system.

Right? So, think of it as this. The analogy would be we're all in a boat in the Niagara River and we're all headed down towards the falls, right?

And so you could have a sunburn in the boat and somebody could say, "Well, we'll put a sab on that to, you know, make it feel better." Somebody could say, "Well, we'll set your boat up with a canopy so that you don't get hit by the sun, you know, get to the root cause." But guess what?

You're still going down the river, right?

So the real question with longevity medicine is how do you actually reverse the current in the river right and that's what longevity is focused on longevity medicine is focused on that and so that's understanding all the hallmarks of aging right so is this where you mentioned because I I I read it somewhere here where you you said we don't age in a linear way we age aging accelerates like it's an exponential and exponential this part is this part of that underlying that current that you're talking about correct that's correct Um, so we have a, you know, we're handicapped in this longevity conversation because we don't perceive aging.

You know, every year is another birthday. I don't feel that much different, right? And yet it's an exponential decline. And you know that people between 80 and 90 age so much faster than people between 30 and 40, right?

We all know that. We see it. Everybody sees it. And yet, if if you're listening to this and you ask yourself, and Eric, you could ask yourself this too. When am I going to be like in 20 years?

What am I going to be like? Oh, my my I'm going to be younger, healthier, fitter, smarter. That's my that's where I've been at in my head. And I think I think that's great.

But let's Yeah. And and that works perfectly, too. You're going to you're going to be that because you're choosing to be that. Yeah. My point is that it's almost impossible for us to imagine our decline. it.

We can't really relate to us being more decrepit, less capable than we are today, right? So, we're in a game of exponential decline, right? That we can't perceive that we can't even imagine even though we see it all around us.

And we develop linear strategies for an exponential problem which are never going to work, right? So, I'm going to eat better. I'm going to exercise. I'm going to get a Fitbit. I'm going to learn to meditate.

I'm going to clean up stress in my life. Perfect, beautiful, wonderful. all has to be done. It's a linear response to an exponential problem because it ultimately doesn't address as completely as necessary the drivers of that current in the river.

And that's where the longevity medicine comes in. And so where what specifically are you doing in the longevity? I know it's that's a big question to ask.

I mean there's a lot a ton pack in there but it would seem to me like I call it pissing in the wind like doing the trying to apply these linear solutions to an exponential problem and and I also I you know I was thinking back to this when you're a kid and you look at like my my daughter I got I got remarried got another do daughter she's 12 and she's looking at me like she probably looks at me like oh my god my dad's like like ancient like I can't imagine the year that I can't imagine myself at 55 like I can't even get there.

Like so there's this this chasm of not grasping it and we're treating it the wrong way. Then how do we treat it the right way? Obviously go to Gladen Longevity. That's I mean I'm going to be take I already made a little note to my wife.

I said book us a trip to Dallas because I'm going to come see you. Yeah. Yeah. We'd love to see you. Love to love to see you. Yeah. So it's basically it's deconstructing the problem process before you construct a solution.

Right.

So this is the other thing that I think we really excel at is not just the construct of longevity and I'll walk you through the rest of it but the ability to actually deconstruct these circles with individuals okay to where we can start to understand who they are uh across everything and the other circles are health so all the health metrics and then performance right so performance is really important like when I'm 100 I want to be fast agile strong quick balanced with great cardiovascular capacity reserve flexibility right if I'm going be that at 100, I better be that today.

Right. Right. If I'm going to be that today, I need to train for that today. And when you're 18, you lift some weights and go for a run. It's like, well, I think I'm good.

But when you're 55 or when you're my age or chronological age, or when you're other ages, you know, every decade, it's different. You think, well, I learned how to work out in my teens.

That's I'll keep doing that in my 40s. Wrong. No, it doesn't work that way. You've got to you've got to continue this growth mindset. What do I need to do to get back to 27? and you'll you'll learn that you need to change it up, right?

So anyway, so the performance piece is really critical and the last circle is the environments that we reside in. So we all live at home, work, business travel, and vacation travel predominantly.

Um, and each of those each of those environments need to be architected to actually support the mission so it's as easy as possible to actually comply with what it is you're trying to implement.

Right? So, and people make the mistake of, well, I've got it set up at home, but my gosh, when I go on a business, you know, I just gained 10 pounds in 10 days.

You know, it's kind of like, see what I'm saying? So, you you don't want to give it all back. You want to basically construct the the environments to support the mission. It doesn't mean we don't have a cheat day or we don't do something or, you know, whatever.

That's it's not about that. It's not about being perfect. It's about being intentional. So, yeah, you you've uh you you've basically been reading my mail on that one because I I do a lot of travel now.

I've uh taken on another coaching assignment with strategic coach. I'm one of their associate coaches. So, I'm going to be traveling out to Toronto from the east coast. I travel a lot. Like there's a lot of travel in in my and I have to be very I'm very diligent.

You know, I get up, I have my AG1, I do my workout, I'm eating healthy. If not, I eat try and eat even healthier when I'm not home because that the spiral goes the other way.

Right now, I'm like, I'm going to have the chicken sal. I'm going to have the salad with the chicken breast without any sauce or anything. You know, when I'm home, I might cheat and have a little something.

Not when I'm traveling. No way. It's like I almost ramp it up. Yeah. Well, that's that's great. I mean, again, it's the intentionality and basically realizing, hey, I'm going to go to a hotel.

How am I going to work out when I'm there? Right. It's like, what am I going to take? What do they have? Blah blah blah. So, you got to think those things through. Um, but yeah, so that's really across those five circles.

And when you really deconstruct those with people and then you reconstruct them, then you actually come up with the solutions that are right for them. And even though we're all human, we all have a little bit different takes on everything and different challenges, right?

Um, one of the foundational pieces apart from identifying the mosaic of ages as to actually really understand what genetic, you know, makeup you have. What are your assets and what are your liabilities? How can you win an exponential game if you don't know what cards you're holding and you don't know where you are in the game?

How can you win an exponential game without that? Right? So, we want to make sure that people have that. We want to make sure they know their genetic information. We want to they want to know where they are in the game, right?

We want them to know that. And then from there, it's like, "Oh, okay. Look, let's do this, this, this, and this." And we work with them over time. It's a coaching it's a coaching uh sort of cenario, if you will.

Uh as well as practicing medicine, right? And then there's lots of procedures and technologies and stem cells and you know plasma feresis and just all kinds of tech we know how to bring to bear but really it's about getting that whole system in play.

It's a system that actually carries you forward and then you plug in the other pieces. Not like well I went to Colombia got stem cells now everything's cool. It doesn't work that way. Right.

So yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And and I love how you've come back to and which I I keep reiterating to people over and over again. And I said, "Every person is different. We're all wired a little differently." So to all of a sudden say, you know, when Akibberry juice came out like couple 20 years ago or whatever, oh, this is the big thing.

It's going to be it's going to that, you know, the fountain of youth and it's like what really like all these different things that are coming out, they're not going to work for you unless you know what works for you.

And so what I really love is that you're taking this this basic a right ground level approach 54:0054 minutesand said let's figure out who you are first. What is all the makeup? Then we'll apply the different longevity tools that we have um being at the mindset, the body, the environment, the the longevity itself.

Yeah. Yeah. And and then so do you do a lot of coaching too then when you're working with your clients like to get them their mindset around what you and I think. Yeah, we do.

Um, you know, people people fly in from all over to work with us, right? We had a guy in the office from Cayman. We had people from New York. We had a woman from Sou Falls, uh, North Dakota, um, Kansas City.

I mean, just in the last five days, right? So, I mean, people kind of come in from all over to work with us. Um, and what we do there is to I think I just lost my train of thought.

What were we talking about? But just you got to customize the solution to the person every like one size doesn't fit all like we need to figure out who who you are and and and just to come back to kind of our conversation on the spiritual side.

I think that is like the esc the escape room is figuring out who you are and how you fit into the puzzle of the universe. And so that's part of the part of the game that you're trying to figure out is what are the pieces that make up Eric and what do I need to do to optimize Eric.

Yeah. No, that's exactly right. It's it's an individual custom fit. It's like going to a tailor and getting a custom fit suit, right? Or it's they've got your measurements, they understand what look you're going for, that kind of thing, right?

So, yeah, it's very much uh it's very much personalized. You were asking me about coaching and I was saying that um you know, people fly in from all over and what's interesting for me is that um I end up having some of the most powerful conversations with them not about not about health.

Um, we we always talk about interesting things in health, but some of the most powerful conversations are actually understanding their personality, where their stress is coming from, um, who they really are, what they're struggling with, right?

What things they're living in reaction to, things like that. People walk out with complete mindset shifts, right? It's like, oh, okay, I came in thinking this was the world, but now I see, wow, that could be the world.

Right? And that's in some level that's the most gratifying. I'm sure that's the joy of your coaching, too, right? It's the when people go and it's like, "Oh, okay. We're moving over here now." Exactly.

And it's like, it's one of the greatest joys that I get is seeing someone else's eyes light up to a new possibility for themselves. That's right. That is the ultimate joy for me. And when you're talking to someone all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, I can." And I'm like, "Yeah, you can." They're like, "Oh, this is amazing.

I know. I know it is. It's incredible." And they're like, "That is it." That for me there is the and that I think comes back to what you said is love is creating joy.

Love loves to create joy. That's it. And that's what that's what all of us are here to do. I I think you know humbly I think that's what it is. It's not about who can get the most toys and the most dollars.

I mean it's it's irrelevant because quite honestly how much air can you breathe? Well, I can breathe every breath that comes in, right? So it's like okay that's good. But if you can have this love creating joy, oh my gosh, it's your life is so so so so so so so satisfying.

It's so fun. Yeah, man. I think we just put a perfect exclamation point on the end of the podcast right there. Dr. Gl, that was absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for being on podcast.

And before we go though, where can people find you find you? Yeah, so we have a podcast as well, the Glad and Longevity podcast. We should have you on actually so we could chat.

That's sounds great. I'm in. Yeah, let's do that. So, the Gladen Long Jeopardy podcast, I wrote a book, 100 is the new 30. Uh was published in uh September of 23. Um and um I also recorded it on Audible.

So, people like Audible. It's uh it's about 450 pages, so it's actually quite comprehensive, but it's also written in a way to be accessible for people. So, we really go into this in in great detail if 58:0058 minutessomebody's looking for, oh, where can I really go to get detail?

And then, you know, we're on all the social media platforms, but the real way to get to us is to go to gladnong longevity. com, uh, the website.

And then, you know, um, if you'd like to have a conversation with us, just reach out and we'll set up a call and sit down and talk through, you know, people's aspirations and their hurdles and what they're trying to accomplish and and then see if we work something out.

See if we're a good fit for each other. Yeah. And then go dive into the five circles and then make uh make 100 the new 30. Yeah. and developed 3,000y old mind. Yeah, I love 3 that you see that now you got me fired up even more about that.

Like that's that's some exponential fun right there. Oh man, this was so that was so so awesome. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Pleasure. Thanks, Eric. Great to meet you. Thanks for listening to the Viking Academy podcast.

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